‘Stop Boris’ Campaign Launched By UK Ministers

London: A campaign to stop former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson from becoming the UK’s new Prime Minister and taking the country into a no-deal Brexit has been launched by moderate cabinet ministers. After Theresa May owed to pressure on Friday and announced she would resign as Conservative leader within two weeks, Justice Secretary David Gauke and International Development Secretary Rory Stewart condemned Johnson’s readiness to embrace a no-deal, saying it would be hugely damaging to the national interest, the Guardian reported.

The campaign launched on Saturday as part of a concerted “anti-Johnson” push by opponents of a hard Brexit followed comments by the former Foreign Secretary on Friday, soon after May’s resignation speech, that the UK would definitely leave the European Union (EU) “deal or no deal” on October 31 if he became leader in July.

The remark infuriated the soft-Brexit wing of the party, with some MPs and Ministers even warning that there would be “serious numbers” of moderate Conservatives who would be ready to vote down a Johnson government if he set the country on a path to no deal. In a clear attack on Johnson, Gauke, writing in the Guardian’s Observer magazine on Sunday, warned that candidates who fail to acknowledge the “enormously harmful” effects of crashing out of the EU will fuel populism and risk doing untold harm to the economy and national interest. His warning came after Stewart, who has declared his intention to stand, tore into Johnson and said he would refuse to serve in a government under his leadership. The race to succeed May has begun with Conservative leadership contenders clashing over Brexit. (IANS)

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